Professionals Are To Search For Maksim Markhaliuk

Specialists will cover marshy places, where unprepared people cannot be allowed.

After 13 days of ineffectual searches for 10-year-old Maksim Markhaliuk, who disappeared in the Belavezhskaya Pushcha, the search for the boy will be continued only by specially trained groups.

This decision was made by the Ministry of Emergency Situations and Ministry of Internal Affairs. Specialists of search and rescue teams TsentraSpas and Angel and some local residents will take part in the search in future.

Head of the detachment Angel Siarhei Kouhan told Radio Svaboda that a large number of rescuers was not needed. According to him, the groups of 50-60 people, well trained specialists, would be given specific tasks.

"Now we are covering marshy places where unprepared people cannot be allowed," – Siarhei Kouhan says. – By the way, they were not allowed to such places last weekend to avoid accidents. Specialists will work in specific areas. We still adhere to the version that the boy has lost his way. "

The rescuers still have not found any traces of Maksim. For 13 days, according to official information, volunteers and employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations have searched a radius of 25 kilometers from the village, rescuers’ helicopters have been flying to a distance of up to 100 kilometers. The investigative committee opened a criminal case on the fact of Maksim Markhaliuk’s disappearance under the Part 2 of the Art. 167 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

The first reports about Maksim Markhaliuk’s disappearance appeared in the media on September 18. The report said that the mother of a 10-year-old boy had applied to the police and said that around 6 pm on September 16, he had cycled towards the forest near the village for mushrooms, he had promised to return after a couple of hours, but disappeared.

Already at 22 pm on September 16, his parents, fellow villagers, police officers and the Ministry of Emergency Situations started to search for Maksim. In the forest they found the boy's bicycle, the bag of mushrooms, but no more traces.

According to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, in 2017, 26 children were lost in the forests of Belarus, only Maksim Markhaliuk has not been found yet. In most cases, the search operations were successful on the first day.